Bear Stearns is out with a new report today suggesting DirecTV (DTV) may warm to the idea of renewing ties with TiVo under Liberty Media’s ownership, leaving Murdoch’s NDS venture behind. Or perhaps choosing to upsell a TiVo solution.
We believe the new DTV management may be more amenable to renewing a relationship with TiVo. The TiVo HD-DVR offers several advantages over the NDS DVRs, including better user interface, wireless access can provide quasi-VOD service, ad revs would be incremental, and TiVo’s HD-DVR is already cheaper than NDS’ HD-DVR.
Though there haven’t been any recent DirecTV TiVo hardware introductions, the two companies are currently collaborating to support existing DirecTiVo customers. And while both camps have a reciprocal do-not-sue clause in effect, DTV’s recent acquisition of ReplayTV‘s intellectual property muddies the issue – and could give them leverage in negotiating terms. We shall see…